Milestones

Posted on 09 July 2008 by admin

Fusion is an evolving process running over a decade long dedicated journey. Following are the key milestones in our evolution.

  • Pilot testing and setting up of first ever Telecentre in Sri Lanka - 1997
  • Formulation of Village Information Centre (VIC) concept and replication around the country - 1999
  • First donor funded ICT program (by UNESCO Appeal) - 2003
  • Initial partnership with Governments ICT program (eSriLanka) - 2003
  • Developing Subsidy Voucher for the eSriLanka program - 2004
  • Expansion of telecentre program with introduction of community scholarships (with Microsoft-UP) - 2004
  • Beginning of ICT4D Research Program - ‘Virtual Villages; Socio-anthropological and technological study on last mile’ - 2004
  • Setting up Telecentre Family Network (in collaboration with eSrilanka program) as an apex telecentre alliance - 2006
  • Design and implementation of Agri-clinics as a farmer centric information delivery mechanism - 2006
  • Sarvodaya-Fusion being elected as the Regional Coordinator for GKP (Global Knowledge Partnership) South Asia - 2006 May
  • Launch of Sarvodaya-Fusion as a specialized ICT4D program of Sarvodaya - 2006 May

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Vision

Posted on 08 July 2008 by admin

‘Fusion of ICT with Nature, Culture, Spirituality and Development’

Fusion is founded on a grand vision, which goes way beyond just ICT for Development.

Grand Vision

Define and develop a model ICT4D platform as a community-oriented, nature-friendly, sustainable, holistic development engagement.

Grand Mission

Fusion grand mission would be founded on the following three pillars;

  • Practice
  • Partnership
  • Research.

Practice; Fusion believes, practice as the first step of learning, and practice as the first step of delivery, practice as the first step for being a living movement. By keeping community first, and touching their heart beat, and listening to their whispers, and recognizing their needs, Fusion would plan and implement ground level programs and update them as a response to the phenomena of change.

Partnership; Fusion trusts the value of interdependence and sharing, and sense of inter-being in the eco-system development. Mutual respect & values of partnership will be regarded at the highest spirit. On one hand community would be reckoned as a partner (than a recipient), on the other hand donors, academia, state institutions, private sector institutions would be recognized as important resource partners. Partnership would be envisaged to build across communities, cultures, boarders, nations and continents, thus thinking in local, national and global perspective.

Research; Fusion would update its vision and development paradigms deriving information from the applied research, carried out to evaluate program impact, add value to community wisdom and build communication bridges between multiple knowledge pools. The research would envisage on multi-disciplinary subject lines, cross cutting Science, Arts, Humanities and Economics. For instance, on one hand it may aim appropriate adaptation of North-born technologies to rudimentary South. On the other hand, it would aim to add value to indigenous wisdom and amplify the voices of the voiceless, of the South.

Illustration 2

Strategy

Fusion aims to utilize the existing programs of Sarvodaya IT Unit as the launching pad. It would envisage becoming an Independent Non-profit Institution affiliated to Sarvodaya towards 2010, where Fusion would be legally registered as a Fusion Company Limited by Guarantee. The transition had been commenced from October 2006, with the launch of Fusion Governing Structure.

Strategic engagement of Fusion designed to be two fold;

A) Programmatic frontier

B) Visionary frontier

Programmatic frontier would follow the norms of project planning & implementation methodologies. They would embody in the existing vision of Fusion, and would respond to present day demands. The Visionary frontier would allow Fusion to expand beyond the rigid boundaries of program implementation and would aim to extend Fusion paradigm towards (medium to long term) future. It would build new insights into gap areas, seek new horizons to harmonize ICT4D with Development as a holistic engagement (ie. integrating into nature, culture, economics and science).

Programmatic frontier: will concentrate on 5 thematic areas;

1. Telecentre / ICT4D technology program

2. Knowledge empowerment program

3. Research & development program

4. Social enterprising program

5. Partnership building program

Visionary frontier: is the more amorphous, as it needs room to develop its own evolutionary thinking process. In the long term, this is expected to form the Fusion University of Wisdom which would:

  • translate intellectual investigation into practice
  • be physically homed in a unique set up, architecturally designed to include Fusion theme centre & coordinating centre
  • be virtually homed through state of the art web platform

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Overview

Posted on 24 June 2008 by admin

Fusion is the ICT4D umbrella movement of Sarvodaya the largest 50 year old national NGO in Sri Lanka, serving over 15,000 villages.

Fusion’s mission is the ‘e-Empowerment of poor communities’. Programs are delivered through telecentres, Village Information Centres (VIC) and other cross cutting community-development programs targeting children, youth, women and elders.

Bigger size

Key thematic areas include

  • Telecentres & ICT4D technologies (including mobile),
  • Knowledge empowerment,
  • Social Enterprising,
  • Research and Development and
  • Partnership Development.

Building upon the pioneering telecentre experiences from 1996, Fusion partners with State, Corporate, Civil Society and Academic institutions to carry out its programs.

As a non-profit making Social Enterprise Fusion strives to develop a economically sound core institution, while seek donor funding to carry out program activities.

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Mission

Posted on 24 June 2008 by admin

‘Information is the key to empowerment’

e-Empowerment of poor communities

Our mission is the empowerment of poor communities all over Sri Lanka, by providing access to ICT (Information and Communication Technology) facilities, (thus e-Empowerment).

Our core strategy involves three steps;

  1. ICT Education
  2. Setting up Village Information Centres (VIC)
  3. Setting up Telecentres.

We educate and train children, women, youth and adults on the basic access to computers, Internet and key software programs.

We set up Village Information Centres (VIC), at the heart of rural villages to prepare communities to interact with basic information on health, agriculture, education etc.

Telecentres are set up at rural towns, enabling the communities to interact with computers, Internet and other ICT services.

Program Strategy

Fusion delivers activities in five thematic areas to materialize core mission;

  1. Telecentre / ICT4D technology program
  2. Knowledge empowerment program
  3. Research & development program
  4. Social enterprising program
  5. Partnership building program

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Where we are>>

image

Fusion Temple >>

temple

Eco Fusion >>

eco

Fusion Projects

Telecentre family of Sri Lanka >>

Building a coalition of telecentre operators connecting every telecentre (including Nanasala of ICTA) towards a sustainable national telecentre network

Sharing knowledge with rural farmers >>

Providing Pest & Disease information to rural farmers in order to improve productivity

Sarvodaya Information Technology Unit >>

Provide ICT education and IT access to poor communities through Sarvodaya village network

Village Information Centers >>

Prepare the rural communities of Sarvodaya village network to Digital Age

Sarvodaya our mother organization >>

Sarvodaya, Sri Lanka’s biggest charity, is dedicated to making a positive difference to the lives of rural Sri Lankans. Our grassroots movement now reaches 15,000 villages in 34 districts with 1,500 staff throughout Sri Lanka.

SarvodayaUK our strategic partner >>

Registered Charity in UK to support Sarvodaya through fund raising, partnership building and research.